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PSY1011 > Sensation & Perception > Flashcards

Sensation & Perception Flashcards

1
Q

What is sensation?

A

The detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send information to the brain

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2
Q

What is perception?

A

The brain’s interpretation of raw sensory inputs

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3
Q

What is transduction?

A

The process of converting an external energy to substance into neural energy

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4
Q

What is a sense receptor?

A

A specialised cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system

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5
Q

What is absolute threshold?

A

The lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50% of the time

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6
Q

What is just noticeable difference (JND)?

A

The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect

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7
Q

What is the signal detection theory?

A

The psychophysical theory which describe the detection of stimuli under conditions of uncertainty

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8
Q

What is cross-modal processing?

A

The mixing of senses across brain areas

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9
Q

What are some examples of cross-modal processing?

A

McGurk effect
Rubber hand illusion
Synaesthesia

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10
Q

What is selective attention?

A

The process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring or minimising the others

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11
Q

True or False: perception is an exact translation of our sensory experiences into neural activity

A

False

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12
Q

True or False: in signal detection theory, false alarms and misses help us to measure hoe much someone is paying attention

A

False

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13
Q

True or False: cross-modal activation often helps us to process information more accurately

A

True

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14
Q

True or False: selective attention may blind us to what is happening right in front of our noses

A

True

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15
Q

True or False: synchronised alpha oscillations (8-12Hz) in different regions of the cortex are used by the brain to coordinate separate processing activities (the binding problem)

A

False

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16
Q

What is brightness?

A

The intensity of the reflected light that reaches our eyes

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17
Q

What is hue?

A

The colour of light lenses

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18
Q

What is accommodation (perception)?

A

Changing the shape of the lens to focus on objects near or far

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19
Q

What is the fovea?

A

The part of the retina where light rays are most sharply focused. Only contains cones

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20
Q

What is acuity?

A

The sharpness of vision

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21
Q

What is the photopigment in rods?

A

Rhodopsin

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22
Q

What are ganglion cells?

A

Nerve cells that transmit visual information from the eye to the brain

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23
Q

What is the trichromatic theory?

A

The idea that colour vision is based on our sensitivity to three different colours (blue, green and red)

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24
Q

How many different types of cones are there?

A

Three

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25
Q

What is the opponent process theory?

A

The idea that we perceive colour as either red or green, or as either blue or yellow

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26
Q

What is blindsight?

A

The remarkable phenomenon in which people with cortical blindness can make correct guesses about things in their environment, even though they cannot see them

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27
Q

What is visual agnosia?

A

A deficit in perceiving objects; they can see the object but are unable to identify it correctly

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28
Q

True or False: the visible spectrum of light differs across species and can differ across individuals

A

True

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29
Q

True or False: the lens of the eye changes shape depending on whether lighting conditions are bright or dim

A

False

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30
Q

True or False: although we perceive objects as unified wholes, different parts of our brain process different kinds of visual information, such as shape, colour and motion

A

True

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31
Q

True or False: red-green colour blindness results when rods are missing but cones are intact

32
Q

True or False: people with visual agnosia have difficulty naming objects

33
Q

What causes colour blindness?

A

The absence or reduced number of one or more types of cones

34
Q

What is timbre?

A

The complexity or quality of sound that makes musical instruments, human voices or other sources sound unique

35
Q

What is a cochlea?

A

A bony, spiral-shaped sense organ used for hearing. Vibrations from sound waves disturb the fluid in the cochlea and travel to the base, where pressure is released and transduction occurs

36
Q

What is the organ of Corti?

A

Tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing

37
Q

What is the basilar membrane?

A

The membrane supporting the organ of Corti and hair cells in the cochlea

38
Q

What are the different parts of the ear?

A

Outer
Middle
Inner

39
Q

What does the outer ear consist of?

A

Pinna
Ear canal
Tympanic membrane

40
Q

What is the pinna?

A

The part of the ear we can see, namely its skin and cartilage flap

41
Q

What is the tympanic membrane?

A

The eardrum

42
Q

What does the middle ear consist of?

43
Q

What are the ossicles?

A

The three tiniest bones in the body - named the hammer, anvil and stirrup - which vibrate at the frequency of the sound wave, transmitting it from the the tympanic membrane to the inner ear

44
Q

What does the inner ear consist of?

A

Cochlea

Semicircular canal

45
Q

What is the semicircular canal?

A

Three fluid filled structures that play a role in balance

46
Q

What is the place theory?

A

a theory of hearing which states that our perception of sound depends on where each component frequency produces vibrations along the basilar membrane.

47
Q

What is frequency theory?

A

A theory that states that the frequency of the auditory nerve’s impulses corresponds to the frequency of a tone, which allows us to detect its pitch.

48
Q

What is the volley theory?

A

states that groups of neurons of the auditory system respond to a sound by firing action potentials slightly out of phase with one another so that when combined, a greater frequency of sound can be encoded and sent to the brain to be analyzed

49
Q

What is conductive deafness?

A

Deafness due to the malfunctioning of the ear, especially a failure of the eardrum or the ossicles

50
Q

What is nerve deafness?

A

Deafness due to damage to the auditory nerve

51
Q

What is noice-induced hearing loss?

A

Loss of hearing due to the damage of hair cells due to exposure to loud noises

52
Q

True or False: sound waves are converted to neural impulses by creating vibrations of the fluid inside the cochlea

53
Q

True or False: we can determine the location of a sound because the pitch seems higher in the closer ear

54
Q

True or False: place theory states that each hair cell in the inner ear has a particular pitch or frequency with which it is most responsive

55
Q

True or False: as we age, we tend to lose hearing for low-pitched sounds more than high-pitched sounds

56
Q

What is a perceptual set?

A

The relation between a stimulus and its context. Grouping things together that make sense

57
Q

What are perceptual constancies?

A

The process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions

58
Q

What are Gestalt principles?

A

Rules that govern hoe we perceive objects as whiles within their overall context

59
Q

What are the different Gestalt principles?

A 
Proximity
Similarity
Closure
Figure-ground
Symmetry
Good continuation
60
Q

What is a bistable image?

A

An image we can perceive in one of two ways

61
Q

What is depth perception?

A

Our ability to judge distance and three-dimensional relations

62
Q

What are monocular depth cues?

A

Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye

63
Q

What is a binocular depth cue?

A

Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using both eyes

64
Q

What are some examples of monocular depth cues?

A 
Size
Texture gradient (detail)
Interposition (objects in front/behind)
Linear perspective 
Height in plane
Light and shadow
65
Q

What are some examples of binocular depth cues?

A

Binocular disparity

Binocular convergence

66
Q

What is binocular disparity?

A

The difference between the images of each each. The more similar the image, the further the object is away

67
Q

What is binocular convergence?

A

The extent to which our eye muscles are causing our eyes to look inwards. The more inwards our eyes, the closer the object

68
Q

True or False: in top-down processing we construct a whole stimulus from its parts

69
Q

True or False: we perceive depth only when we have two slightly different view from our eyes

70
Q

True or False: the firing rate of even a single neuron can code the presence of a perceptual Gestalt

71
Q

True or False: the earths atmosphere enlarges the appearance of the moon, creating the moon illusion

72
Q

What is bottom-up processing?

A

Constructing a whole stimulus from its parts. For example: perceiving an object on the basis of its edges

73
Q

What is top-down processing?

A

Perceiving a stimulus based on our expectations on what it should be

74
Q

What is the binding problem?

A

Our brain processes different elements (shape, size, colour etc.) of an object in different areas. Any of these elements alone do not reflect the entire object but when the come together the object can be interpreted

75
Q

How many rods are there per ganglion cell?

76
Q

How many cones are there per ganglion cell?

77
Q

What is the photopigment in cones?

PSY1011 (7 decks)

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